Both remington and savage are good guns. I own a heavy barrel in .308 of each. The savage 10fp will be a little cheaper but the remington 700 will have more aftermarket support. Some people will argue that the remington has better extraction than the savage and I think they are right. You don't have to go all out on a rifle. A stock savage 10fp or a remington 700 sps varmint will both shoot sub MOA with good match ammo. Glass is a whole other discussion. A fixed 10x bushnell elite 3200 ($200) would be dependable and rugged starting scope and sky's the limit after that.

There's a nice thread over at the California Precision Rifle Club website addressing your question. It focuses on looking at the entire set-up. At the end, the author has some listed packages, two are in your price range. Plus there's a spreadsheet that you can play with.

Guess I jumped the gun, Mixicus beat me to it, this is what happens when posting without reading the entire thread...

Quote:

Originally Posted by mixicus

There's a nice thread over at the California Precision Rifle Club website addressing your question. It focuses on looking at the entire set-up. At the end, the author has some listed packages, two are in your price range. Plus there's a spreadsheet that you can play with.

Remington 700 5R is a good start! Its not amazingly expensive and as a starter is going to be much more accurate than you. As you progrerss and get more comfortable it can grow with you with small changes. Whatever you swap out you can sell and can use that to fund the next purchase. Remington 5R with a Vortex PST in mil/mil is a nice start.